R. Scott Morris
Encyclopedia
R. Scott Morris is an American author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, financial engineer and quantitative consultant
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...

. He is president of Morris Consulting, LLC, and served as CEO of the Boston Options Exchange
Boston Options Exchange
Boston Options Exchange Group, LLC is an automated stock exchange owned and operated by the TMX Group. As an equity options market, it provides electronic order matching services to stock brokers and traders.- Overview :...

 from 2006-08. He has also served as Managing Director of Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...

 and Partner at Hull Trading Company
Hull Trading Company
Hull Trading Company was an independent algorithmic trading firm and electronic market maker. Known for its quantitative and technology-based trading strategy, it was acquired by Goldman Sachs in 1999.-History:...

.

Education and Hull Trading

Morris was born in Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

 and attended Pike High School
Pike High School
Pike High School is a public high school on the northwest side of Indianapolis, Indiana.-Academics:Pike High School serves students in grades 9–12 in the Metropolitan School District of Pike Township....

. After completing a degree in Economics at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

 in 1986, he entered a rapidly changing futures industry as the NYSE and NASDAQ began trading equity options contracts. As an associate for GNP commodities, Morris developed strategies for risk hedging and management and began his lifelong research into algorithmic trading.

After joining a team of mathematicians and scientists working under Blair Hull
Blair Hull
M. Blair Hull is an American businessman, investor, Democratic politician, and philanthropist.Hull founded Hull Trading Company in 1985 and served as the firm’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer before selling it to Goldman Sachs in 1999 for $531 million...

 at Hull Trading Company, he obtained an M.B.A from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

, where he specialized in both finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...

 and statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

. During his tenure with Hull Trading, Morris engineered electronic option pricing systems and developed option pricing and volatility models, eventually becoming a Partner
Partner (business rank)
A partner in a law firm, accounting firm, consulting firm, or financial firm is a highly ranked position. Originally, these businesses were set up as legal partnerships in which the partners were entitled to a share of the profits of the enterprise. The name has remained even though many of these...

 and the Director of Financial Engineering.

Goldman Sachs and Boston Options Exchange

After becoming one of the world's premier market-making firms, Hull Trading Company was acquired by Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...

 in 1999 for $531 million.
Morris joined Goldman Sachs, where he managed the equity trading financial engineering groups and continued his work on trading systems and statistical modeling. After two years, he became a Managing Director and led the firm's algorithmic trading
Algorithmic trading
In electronic financial markets, algorithmic trading or automated trading, also known as algo trading, black-box trading or robo trading, is the use of electronic platforms for entering trading orders with an algorithm deciding on aspects of the order such as the timing, price, or quantity of the...

 division at the Automated Execution Strategies desk.

In 2006, Morris became CEO of the Boston Options Exchange
Boston Options Exchange
Boston Options Exchange Group, LLC is an automated stock exchange owned and operated by the TMX Group. As an equity options market, it provides electronic order matching services to stock brokers and traders.- Overview :...

 Group, an automated equity options stock exchange. As CEO, Morris continued his engineering work, developing execution speed and messaging capacity for hedge funds and algorithmic traders. He also worked to extend equal opportunities to all market members, openly stating that:


"Our goal is to create a level playing field for all participants. Unfortunately, many of our competitors still see fit to grant certain aspects of their customer base special privileges. We just don't see why anyone should receive priority or special privileges in this day and age."


Morris led the implementation of the SOLA trading platform and PIP price improvement algorithm. He departed in 2008 after the TMX
TMX
TMX may refer to:* Thiamethoxam, a second generation neonicotinoid insecticide* TMX Group, parent to the Toronto Stock Exchange and Montreal Derivatives Exchange** Toronto Stock Exchange , can be mistakenly referred to by its parent...

 majority ownership acquisition.

Consulting and Writing

Morris is the founder of Morris Consulting, LLC, which develops quantitative models and automated trading
Algorithmic trading
In electronic financial markets, algorithmic trading or automated trading, also known as algo trading, black-box trading or robo trading, is the use of electronic platforms for entering trading orders with an algorithm deciding on aspects of the order such as the timing, price, or quantity of the...

 strategies, and advises large trading firms on regulatory relations, risk management, and recruiting. He has spoken at numerous educational and industry events and has lectured at the Chicago Board Options Exchange
Chicago Board Options Exchange
The Chicago Board Options Exchange , located at 400 South LaSalle Street in Chicago, is the largest U.S. options exchange with annual trading volume that hovered around one billion contracts at the end of 2007...

  Risk Management Conference, the Futures Industry Association
Futures Industry Association
The Futures Industry Association is a trade association in the United States composed of futures commission merchants. A futures commission merchant is analogous to a broker; they are entities that accept orders and payment for commodity futures for execution on a futures exchange...

, and the Security Traders Association of Chicago.

In 2002, he lectured on volume-price ratios and optimal execution at the Computational Finance program at Carnegie Mellon, and he is currently a guest lecturer for the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

Careers in Business program. Morris is also the author of Polished, a careers resource book that teaches resume, cover letter and interview skills to college students and other first-time job seekers.
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